A Sequel To Nothing
by jacksonkanepotter4ever
Summary: Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun's game, Hero's Duty, had just been plugged in. Nothing else to worry about, right? But then there's this strange girl...and her "family" seems messed up as well. And Hero's Duty was an old game...? Post-WiR, Hero's Cuties. Slightly reality-bending.
1. Plugged In and Loaded

"_Run!"_

_Footsteps echoed across the stone floor. The distinct hum of a swarm of Cybugs were audible through the thin walls. She grasped the makeshift gun, one hand outstretched facing back._

"_But-"_

_She hissed, cutting off the voice as the makeshift gun ran out of ammo. Out of desperation, she threw the gun towards the oncoming swarm, and it uselessly bounced off the thick metal shell of the lead Cybug. Tears pricked the sides of her eyes as a hopelessly insane idea formed in her mind, glancing at the other exit. Desperation fueled her legs as she shouted,_

"_Run! Sonic, please-AAAAAAHHHH!"_

_A Cybug's pincers gored straight through her stomach, drawing dark red blood out of her body. The mouth of the Cybug spit acid at her point blank, and the pain, oh the pain…_

_A blue blur swept past her, and somehow, through the intense pain, she smiled. Then the bigger cybugs opened their maws, and the joy that coursed through her earlier was used as fuel to push on the pincer, aggravating the wound further, and she cried out as the darkness swallowed her, and she was falling, falling…_

"AAH!"

A white-haired female shot up in bed, gasping and clutching the bed sheets. It took her a few moments to regain her bearings, but almost immediately after she had recovered, memories, different from the one she had dreamt of, trickled into her mind. A blank expression filled her face as she processed all the new information.

Her name was Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun. She's in Sector White, a place in Hero's Duty, which is a game. She led the Squad Alpha. Kohut was her second-in-command. Her team was a bunch of unreliable but loyal ninnies. Markowski especially. Her job is to guide to First Player Shooter to the 99 floors and activate the beacon manually. The beacon kills the Cybugs. Cybugs are an experiment horribly wrong and they litter that planet, becoming what they eat.

Cybugs have different varieties. The varieties are immediately inserted into her brain, each capability, weakness, each chink in the armor. The order from General Hologram to wipe out the Cybugs. The selection of her troops. A scientists-slash-soldier. Dates, compliments, the proposal. The wedding. Brad…

Tamora growled and got up from the military cot, examining her surroundings. No other cots were in sight. Her programming tells her that this room is private because of her rank and gender. A single mirror stood in one wall with a desk, on which the map to the whole district of Hero's Duty is placed along with a single plastic flower and a card. A small wardrobe stood on another wall, and a bathroom next to it faced the mirror.

She turned on the lights and examined the card from a distance. Searching her memories, the card obviously did not come from Hero's Duty as none of her men would even dare send her something with different intentions other than an official report. Tamora decided to just read the card, but brought the pistol under her pillow with her just in case.

As she passed the mirror, she stopped. Her instincts, pre-programmed instincts, told her to examine herself, and she did without any amount of vanity. She wore a pair of serviceable pants and a white camisole, very practical considering her game. Her waistline was impossible in real life, she somehow knew, but did not give it any further notice.

The card was scented. Once more, Brad went to her mind, but she shook the offending memories away. It was colored yellow with a distinct flowery scent, and sealed with a small stamp. Tamora wondered who would send a card during the time of instant communication, but decided to mull over it later. It read:

**To whom this may concern,**

** Please be ready at the entrance to your game along with all other characters, locked or unlocked. The orientation would start from the moment all the characters are present at the archway. Someone will be there to guide you.**

**The Management**

Tamora blinked at the card and turned it over to find another message.

**Hello! My name is Julia and I'll be your guide to Pleasure City. Please take your time in gathering all the characters in your game. I'll be waiting at the archway. **

It was signed with a smiley face. She raised an eyebrow at the informal message, but thought nothing of it as she took her towel from the wardrobe and readied her armor. The dream was completely forgotten.


	2. Meet Julia Mathers

Tamora was programmed to be cold. And she was also programmed with a loud voice. So the moment she stepped foot outside of her quarters, the megaphone she picked up from a desk as she passed by was used to its full potential and soon enough, lines of heavily armed soldiers formed upon the closed quadrangle. Arranged by rows, rank and skill, she idly noted with pride.

They had been programmed with memories of her fierce temper and of course, Brad. The wedding that never really existed was stamped upon their hearts, and she knew that even though most of them are eggheads, they are certainly loyal enough to do her bidding as soldiers. And the fact that their backstories also involved loved ones getting killed by Cybugs helped too.

Tamora stepped into the dais at the front, looking at each of the soldiers in their eyes. Her pistol was mounted at her leg, ready to be fired at a moment's notice.

"Alright ladies. I've just received a missive for all characters to present themselves at the entrance to Hero's Duty. I hope all of you are ready, otherwise…" she trailed off, and silence lingered for a few seconds before she continued, "I know we aren't supposed to leave the base unguarded, but something tells me this is pretty important, so I don't wanna hear that any of you sissies making trouble. Got that?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Good. Let's move out!" She hopped down from the dais and led the fully armored soldiers out of the barracks and the base.

Sector White was the relative safe zone. The base of the game, with many anti-Cybug traps and barriers designed to work even without human guidance. Sector Blue covers the road from Sector White to the entrance of the game. Sector Red is the surrounding areas of the tower, and Sector Black was the tower itself. The small army marched on the road in a defensive formation, and leading them was Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, holding a gun larger than her head.

Just because it wasn't Game Time doesn't mean there aren't any Cybugs around.

"Halt!" Tamora barked, stopping just before the tunnel. The lights of the subway train glowed at the end, but there was no one in sight. The soldiers shifted uneasily behind her. She took a deep breath, beginning to get really angry, until-

"Hey!"

"Whoops, sorry!"

Green, one of the rookie soldiers, was holding up a kid by the collar of her t-shirt. Upon closer examination, she looked no older than sixteen, and she was staring at the soldier with an apologetic smile.

"Can you, um, put me down? 'Cause- oh yeah, that works too. Thanks, Sarge." One glance from Tamora to Green and he put the girl down gently. The blonde-haired girl dusted herself off, and walked calmly in the middle of fully-armed soldiers to the front, beside Tamora.

"You are Sergeant Tamora Calhoun?" she asked in a composed voice, as if she hadn't been just lifted into the air by an armed individual.

"Affirmative. Are you the guide?"

The girl smiled meekly, blinking twice before extending a gloved hand. Tamora looked at it for a moment before shaking it once. The girl looked unfazed by the cold attitude and nodded before facing the army.

"My name is Julia Mathers, and welcome to Quarter Drop, a warehouse dedicated to preserving arcade games and restoring them to their former glory. You are in the Shooting Section, being a First-Person Shooter game. By the way, are there any problems regarding the data, coding, and memory banks?"

The soldiers murmured to each other and Tamora resisted the urge to yell at them to shut up and reply.

"None so far."

"So far. Yes, that's understandable. I'm the official mechanic-slash-in-game-programmer of the arcade, so any glitches, bugs, underdeveloped programs and that kind of stuff, you can report to me or to one of the programmers. There are three major programmers here in Quarter Drop. There's Clix, a guy with a screen for a head where you can see his real face-"

"He's a player?" Markowski, another rookie, spoke up.

"Yup. But mostly he just hangs out in the games as an avatar. Then there's Norman, and his avatar is a stickman. And finally, there's Andy, the floating lampshade with googly eyes. They're just avatars, but they're also players, and you'll meet them later.

Now, outside this game, you'll travel to a station. That's where all the Shooting Games are connected, called the TPS, short for Target Practice Station. I'm not the one who named it, that's Clix, and I still don't know why he named it like that, but everyone just accepted it because of the amount of bullet holes on the walls and what's left of the fountain.

Anyways, you won't need your guns for this tour, I'm just gonna show you all the hotspots here and we're done. If you want to hang out around the other games, sure, the arcade's closed anyway for the tours."

"There are others?"

"Oh, a lot. Most of the consoles here come in groups, rescued from being turned to scrap metal by junkyard people. Now please, all aboard the train, I've got tons more to show and explain in this arcade."

Julia nodded to the soldiers and swiped her hand in midair. A clipboard appeared in her hand and Tamora's eyes widened.

"How-"

"I'm a programmer too." That was her only reply as her smile faded, looking at the clipboard with a frown. Tamora decided to shelve the issue later and turned to her soldiers, who were shifting uneasily now. Upon feeling her gaze, however, the soldiers straightened themselves quickly.

"You heard her. Store your guns and follow me." Her own gun shortened to a small stick with a button on one end, a neat trick the programmers installed. She tucked it into a pocket and walked forward. Julia trailed behind silently, still engrossed in the clipboard.

When the train door opened, Julia was the first to jump out, clipboard clutched in her left arm. The floor briefly glowed when her feet came into contact with it, and that made Tamora more wary of her steps. True enough, the floor glowed cool neon blue as she stepped on it. Julia caught her looking and her smile returned.

"That's just a mild information reader. It will disappear later once it's gotten your data and stored it in the databanks of the arcade. It's like a profiler."

Tamora nodded, finally noticing her soldiers. They were stomping around like little kids, testing out the floor. She was about to yell at them when she felt a finger poke her.

"Do you mind if I take control for a moment?"

"How old are you?" the soldier honestly doubted that this Julia could command her men.

"Fourteen, but that's irrelevant. I'm guessing that's a yes?" Before Tamora could reply, Julia had turned to the soldiers, whistled once, and walked out. To the sergeant's surprise, Evans had turned at the whistle, and the next thing she knew everyone, including her, was walking as one group to the station.

TPS was chaotic and ordered at the same time. Soldiers and armed men from different games wrestled and chatted with each other, the fountain in the middle was riddled with bullet holes and filled with bullets instead of water, the design was symmetrical on every angle, including the graffiti, and true to Julia's description, the walls had numerous bullet holes and dents. In the far corner, Tamora thought she saw a gaping hole, possibly made by a rocket-launcher.

"This is Target Practice Station. You can shoot the walls with your plasma guns, it won't break down. But try and cut the fountain some slack, shall we? If you put graffiti on one wall, it will appear on the on the other wall. But bullet holes aren't duplicated so…tada!" Julia flicked her hand at the walls.

"Anyways, I won't introduce to you guys all of the games, you do that for yourselves. You have plenty of time later and tomorrow. Just remember that shooting someone else is not allowed, or you will be forcefully reprogrammed. By the way, you don't die in this station."

"Oh yeah!" Julia snapped her fingers. "Ground rules: you die outside your game, you don't regenerate. Quote-unquote, Sonic. Unless you have a copy, like this station and Pleasure City, you will die. Otherwise, you'll regenerate back at your own game-slash-spawn point. Easy as that.

No hacking or messing with another game's code. You will be reprogrammed. Trust me, being reprogrammed is the worst punishment you'll ever receive. Ever. Alert the major programmers if that game needs help. And now, to Pleasure City!" she grinned, a full-on grin, as she pointed to the biggest outlet in the station. The plaque read: Game Central Station.

There are some times in a person's life that you just can't figure out something and might spend a lot of time thinking about it. For Tamora, this was it. Because from the moment she read the plaque, she knew there was something missing already.


	3. Train Rides and Programmers

Game Central Station. Why does that name sound familiar? Tamora racked her head for anything to explain the disturbing feeling that she's heard of it before. Nothing. Her backstory only involved living in Sector White from the moment she'd been deployed. Nothing like a whole new world of arcade games.

Julia's step had a nice spring to it, and it was obvious that she was excited. Tamora mulled over the information that she had been given. At fourteen years old, this girl was apparently a programmer and a mechanic. Maybe her game involved fixing cars?

"Hey kid."

Julia slowed her steps to fall back with the sergeant. "Yes?"

"What's your game?" They had stopped in front of the entrance to the GCS. Beyond the brightly lit tunnel, she could see a big red steam train, nothing like the subway train of her game. The door was open, and several tall, muscled men, came in. Her soldiers stopped too.

There was a short silence. "I have no game." Julia shrugged, and looked around. Tamora followed her example and raised an eyebrow. Almost all of the characters are humans, but jungle animals like deers and monkeys. Tamora supposed they were targets, and pretty tame too, watching as one monkey offered a banana to a passing soldier in blue uniform.

What Julia said finally registered, and she was momentarily taken aback.

"Why?"

The soldiers were now listening; crowding the two as Julia palmed the clipboard and looked around again, clearly looking for something or someone.

"I'm an independent mass of codes. I was never connected to any game whatsoever. Oh, there's Clix." She waved over to a lanky guy with, like she said, a screen for a head. Tamora knew from her tone that she had stepped too far, and decided to refrain from asking any more questions. The screenhead guy was walking towards them, and the face of a real guy came into view.

"Hello, squadsters! My name's Clixerator158, but you can call me Clix for short. Ma'am, I'd kiss your hand, but unfortunately I have a flat screen for a head." The player flashed a dazzling smile as he bowed.

"Don't even start. Anyway, guys, meet Clix, he's one of the major programmers. Don't believe him, he can change his avatar; he just likes to creep the other characters by showing his real face as a player. Clix, meet Sergeant Calhoun and her squad, from Hero's Duty." Julia mock-scowled and folded her arms.

"Ah, I see you've met our amazing mechanic, Miss Julia!" he sidled up to the teenager and grinned. "If anything's broken, she'll w-"

"Clix, I thought Norman was calling you to help on the memory cards." Julia's voice gained an icy quality beneath the calm exterior.

The avatar held his hands up. "Ok, ok! I get it! I'm just visiting anyway. Asteroids have a problem with number count and stuff like that. Don't worry, I'm on it." A nervous smile was plastered on the screen as he backed away. As he passed the soldiers, however, he paused and shot a thumbs-up at the armored men.

"Nice armor! I'll play you guys later, ok?"

"Um…" Green looked at the others for support.

"Uh…hi?" Carrows offered.

Tamora turned her gaze back to Julia, who was shaking with suppressed laughter.

"What is it?" she asked sharply. Julia smiled kindly at her.

"It's just that you guys aren't exactly the first characters to do that." She jerked her head at the direction of Markowski and the others, clearly unsure of what to say. "Everyone does that. In this arcade, the players know that the characters are more than just a bunch of codes, so to new characters it's kinda weird to see one actually interacting with us."

"Can they modify the codes of a character?" Kohut spoke up.

"That's being reprogrammed, but yeah, they can. Don't ask them unless you have a good reason to reprogram yourself. Can we cut the lollygagging and board the train? It's leaving in seven minutes." She marched on without looking back. Tamora frankly agreed with the girl, they were taking too long in the entrance of the station, and some of the people were giving them strange looks.

"Quit your yapping and follow me. There's plenty of sightseeing to do tomorrow." She snapped at her squad. Once they stopped chattering like seals and ordered themselves, the sergeant followed the teenager to the train.

-0000-

For a steam train, it was surprisingly fast. It went from zero to sixty, she supposed, in a matter of seconds. Julia was relaxed on the seat, humming an unfamiliar tune. Her soldiers were whispering and murmuring to each other, most probably talking about the player.

It's been a pretty tame tour, so far. No one was making any trouble, and her soldiers behaved admirably. She had accumulated a lot of questions already, ranging from 'Why are you so young?' to 'What is the material of the carpet on this train?' Admittedly, the last one was due to spotting a duck with dirty feet stumble upon the train and drag muddy footprints on the carpet. The mud vanished within seconds.

As a soldier, she knew how to prioritize. She knew how to schedule, how to control her squad, knew the basics of being a leader. She also knew that dwelling too long on unnecessary concerns clouds the mind. Apparently it took her a long time to recover from Brad's death, and her comeback had been explosive, wreaking havoc on the Cybugs to divert her thoughts. There were many things that she wanted to know and ask from the teenager sitting next to her, but from the tone this Julia showed earlier, she hesitated to ask.

Tamora trusted Julia Mathers, for some unknown reason. From the moment she had walked to the front with nary a nervous glance to fully-armed soldiers, she had appreciated the calm exterior this girl had. It was a precious trait, being fearless. She wished Markowski had the same trait.

"Moolah for your thoughts?"

"What?"

Julia chuckled lightly. "You seem pretty deep in thought."

"What's moolah?"

"Gaming term for money. You could also use credits, points, and coins. For Sonic and his game, that's rings. Different game, different currency. You use dollars, am I right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Shooting game, I know." She continued humming that tune. After listening to a few notes, she can't help herself.

"What's that?"

"What?"

"That tune."

"Oh." Julia sighed deeply. "The tune of Fix-it Felix Jr. It's an 8-bit game that I toured before you guys. The tune was stuck in my head." She shook her head. "The citizens are absolutely annoying. They keep getting scared of the antagonist, like hello, he's an antagonist. He's meant to do that!" she rolled her eyes.

Tamora felt like she should know about that game, but the train suddenly stopped and her soldiers had their faces smashed against the windows of the train.

"_Welcome to Game Central Station_." A cool female voice announced.


	4. Welcome to the GCS

A/N: Since this is the fourth chapter, I suppose I need to say a few sentences. First, you are free to review or simply read this through. I would reply, yes, but this story is mainly about me typing out one of the best fanfiction ideas I've had in long, long time. Bear with me.

Also, flames will be used to burn the trash in my Recycling Bin. I wouldn't care anyway. Point out to me any flaws and stuff like that immediately before I update so any errors shall be fixed. And my updating is quite irregular, so be disappointed this early on.

Oh and if you came here despite the crappy prologue, then well done! You did not judge a book by its cover. Others do though. I could care less.

And now…time for a point of view change.

In a bed at the second floor of a house, a little boy tossed the covers off and jumped up. He glanced at the window, and moaned loudly. It was noon. Marsha and Aunt Sorceress wouldn't be able to visit just yet. He flicked his hand at the bunched-up covers, and they fixed themselves into a neat pile.

He stood up blearily, his eyes struggling to focus on his surroundings. The little boy blinked a few times to clear the dizziness. It worked, and it came along with his other senses. Pleasure City was being extra noisy this day. His sister told him to get some cereal for lunchtime, didn't she?

He gasped and ran downstairs as fast his small legs could carry him. There it is on the table, a bowl, a spoon, a jug of milk, and the golden box of cereal. The little boy grinned widely and hopped in the small chair.

But as he reached for the spoon, his eyes flicked to the calendar hanging beside the fridge. Several dates were encircled with red and had something scribbled inside the boxes. He glanced at the cereal box, then at the calendar, before nodding and slipping out of the chair.

One of the boxes had "New Arrivals: Litwak's" written, then a "Calibration and Restoration" next to it. The current date had a "Tours today" scribbled hastily. He blinked before looking at the last encircled box and grinning.

"Robert's birthday!" was written with balloons drawn at the sides, with another sidenote named "GameFest". He immediately thought of all the amazing stuff that happens at the GameFest and all of the gifts he would receive…and all the food he would eat.

Robert skipped back happily to his small chair and finally reached for the box of cereal. His birthday would be in three weeks, and there was no time to be sulky. He could've been happier if his big sister was here, but she had work today, and he promised not to play with the new games. Not yet, at least.

After all, as Marsha had said, you only turn seven once.

Game Central Station is amazing.

They stopped at one of the terminals, and even through the glass Tamora could see that the place was definitely huge. The amount of creatures there were few so she could see the other end of the station, but she couldn't help but notice a spiky shelled turtle standing on two legs, a blue cartoonish penguin with airspace goggles, a group of bikers ridings dinosaurs instead of bikes, and many more oddities.

"Woah, look at that gal!" Someone yelled out. Tamora looked and rolled her eyes. A gaggle of female teenagers were gathered around chatting and sometimes dancing randomly. They wore fitted clothes and small shorts, and she prepared to chastise her team when the doors opened.

Apparently, the train's walls seemed to be soundproofed, because Tamora was totally unprepared for the blast of noise that suddenly came in. It wasn't as shocking as a gun being fired, but after hearing only the murmurs and whispers of the characters inside the train, it was disconcerting to actually hear noise.

Hoots, yells, and whistles were only part of the sounds that can be heard throughout the station.

The other characters went out, leaving her and her team the only ones left on the train. Tamora turned around to look for the 'guide' and found her talking with a dead person. At least it looked dead. The clothes and parts of its skin were clearly rotting out, but the sole eyeball rolled around aimlessly in its head.

"Ah, yes, I'll check right around…hmm, does 7 pm work for you?" Julia looked at her clipboard, nodding. The zombie bobbed its head and ambled out another door.

Julia turned back to the small army of Hero's Duty. "Alright people, close lines, no wandering, please, Pleasure City's huge and I don't want to have to kill someone today." She was greeted with silence. "To regenerate you back in your game, of course." Julia clarified, and someone from the back audibly sighed.

Tamora barked at her team to straighten up and look fresh, while Julia played with something on her clipboard. "They're ready." Tamora said stiffly as she glared at the teenager clearly playing with something. Julia met her glare with a grin and walked outside, the army following her. The train door closed behind them and rolled into the next station.

The ceiling of GCS was shaped like a dome with a chandelier protruding from the center. Gilded pillars decorated with all manners of artistic decorations stood here in there like a misshapen cathedral, except that instead of rows of seats, train tracks and stations weaved in and out. Characters went by their own business and didn't dare bother them, though some shot a smile at Julia and appreciative looks for Tamora.

"You can go anywhere here in the GCS. You won't meet our Surge Protector today, but rest assured he's a nice little fellow. Signs will guide you, and if that doesn't help you can always ask the other characters for assistance, provided that you ask nicely." Julia stressed the provided part a bit, and grinned. "Now that you're here, you are basically family. And families don't harm each other, so no roughhousing around."

She snapped her fingers and whistled a high note. A go-kart materialized in front of them.

"You can use these little cars to go around in Pleasure City and they fit four passengers. Just snap your fingers and whistle once. You can't crash them; fortunately, they have a defense system built in. Anyways, since we're touring then we aren't going to use them now. Oh and watch out for the racers. They can bring their cars here through the cord roads, and those guys are speed demons."

They began to walk towards the exit, and judging from the amount of sunlight pouring in Tamora guessed it was around noon. There wasn't any sun in the planet of her game, but she somehow knew it was supposed to be noon.

Then they went outside. And everyone pretty much stopped in their tracks. Julia smirked and waved to the scenery in front of them.

"Welcome to Pleasure City!"

It wasn't a bustling metropolis, but it wasn't a country town either. It was jumbled up; skyscrapers and towers larger than the beacon in her game dotted the sky but cottages and small houses littered the streets. The road was with four lanes, and every few seconds someone would zoom past in a car or a bike…plants were also scattered in every backyard or lawn. The sea breeze met her nose and she inhaled deeply at the smell.

Wait, sea breeze?

"So this is the entrance to GCS. Kinda like a metropolis, but it gets all country-like the farther you go in. Straight down this road you'll see the sea and the Greeneries. Go left and you'll find the stadium and the plaza where characters have their own lives other than their games. Go right and you'll see a church for the religious people 'round here, and the desert for the Wild West folks. I won't tell you the rest, though; you'll have to find that out for yourself."

Julia then pointed to a luxurious hotel a few blocks away. "We'll be going there for the seminar."

"What seminar?" Tamora snapped her back to look at the brunette.

"This is the tour of the outside world, Sarge, or rather, your game's outside world. But there are things that you really need to know. Things…that may ultimately affect you and your living here." Near the end her voice changed icily again, and her soldiers shifted uneasily in the background.

Julia stared back at the road. "Move out." She marched on ahead. They probably looked like an odd crowd in the streets, but then Tamora couldn't care less. She preferred to know what exactly these 'things' are, and she did not like knowing nothing.

Not one bit.


End file.
